macro econ before micro?

College Majors Business Major
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<p>I'm an engineering student at the University of Virginia, and am currently looking into second semester courses. To keep it short, my options are this: take micro now as recommended and possibly get a bad teacher to further burden my coursework, or take macro econ now, even though it is recommended to take micro first, and wait for next year to take micro with a highly recommended teacher. Any advice would be great.</p>

<p>My main question is: is it possible to do well in macroeconomics without taking a microeconomics course first?</p>

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<p>It is possible to do well in Macroeconomics without first taking Microeconomics. However, it would likely be easier (all else being held constant) to first take microeconomics and then macroeconomics. The hard part of macroeconomics (depending on the school) for most people aren't the concepts, but the formulas that might accompany those concepts. That is my opinion and others may have different experiences than me ( I personally find introductory macroeconomics to be quite easy to grasp, although I did take micro, and studied macro before I took the course).</p>

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<p>Agree, micro before macro. At Berkeley, micro and macro were rolled into the same 4 unit class (Econ 1A)...haha.</p>

<p>Sure, it's possible...the concepts just come across easier when talking about one purchaser/manufacturer, than explaining goverment monetary policy without having the basic fundamentals down (supply and demand).</p>

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<p>weird...
I took the two intro econ courses at JC, and macro was actually the prereq course for micro... O.o</p>

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<p>I took macro before micro in both HS and college and did just fine. My advice would be to take macro.</p>

<p>Of course, it depends on your school. Ask some of your older peers!</p>

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<p>I think the math is a little more intensive in macro than it is in micro. But yea, I think micro just kind of lays the groundwork that the Macro classes just run with. You shouldnt have too much of a problem as long as you are a good student, since you will probably have to put in a little more time.</p>

<p>Btw, beautiful pun Milton, it made me laugh. :P</p>

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<p>Really? I thought the math was more intensive in Micro than in Macro. Anyway, I don't think taking Micro before Macro really was necessary at all.</p>

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<p>Where's the pun?</p>

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<p>to add to the confusion, i currently have a kid in micro, which had MACRO as its prerequisite. sadly for her, the micro is much more mathematical.</p>

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<p>Lets go HOOS....</p>

<p>Now that I got that out of the way...</p>

<p>I have take Econ 201, 202, 301, 302, 303 at UVA.</p>

<p>With regards to option 1, when you say, "bad teacher" you mean the Grad professors for Econ 201 in the spring since you would not be taking it in the FALL and have the opportunity to take it Elzinga in his 500+ student class. Well I took Elzinga and it sucked, actually my lowest grade here at the university! The class is just too big only a percentage of whats on the test is covered in class. I would recommend Mirman for Econ 201 spring, i have heard great things especially since you have more of a math brain and he does more indepth mathmatics in econ than all the other professors.</p>

<p>To the last part of your question.... Take micro first it lays the foundation for macro atleast the format they have here at UVA.</p>

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<p>I dont know how to quote, so Ill just paste it.</p>

<p>"However, it would likely be easier (all else being held constant) to first take microeconomics and then macroeconomics."</p>

<p>All else held constant, aka ceteris paribus, basic economic rule when studying economic theory, in a thread discussing economic classes.</p>

<p>lol, am I the only one who picked up on that??</p>

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<p>I personally found micro easier than macro. In fact I did better in AP micro than AP macro even though we did micro first.</p>

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<p>I found Macro way easier than Micro...</p>

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<p>If its an intro class, it really doesn't matter. The concepts are pretty basic...you don't really need one for the other at this level.</p>

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<p>Thank you J.</p>

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<p>Micro Before Macro.</p>

<p>As I learned the hard way. And go to class and take notes!</p>

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<p>im starting macro in winter and taking micro in summer</p>

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<p>In community college I took macroeconomics before microeconomics (both 200-level classes/intro classes). At University of Washington Foster School of Business I took intermediate macro before intermediate micro and did great in both. The two really aren't dependent on each other and the commonalities between the two are eccentrically easy to pick up.</p>